Adam Johnson denies football career fear prevented early guilty plea

Adam Johnson has denied that worries about losing his football career and salary prevented him from entering an earlier guilty plea to grooming and kissing a 15-year-old girl.

Johnson previously denied all four charges against him but pleaded guilty to the two offences on the first day the case was listed for trial at Bradford Crown Court.

The 28-year-old former Sunderland and England winger told the court he was following advice and denied it was because a guilty plea could end his career.

Kate Blackwell, prosecuting, asked Johnson why he had not pleaded guilty at an earlier court hearing.

He said: “It’s the advice I was given at the time and I went along with that.”

Ms Blackwell described how he threw his shirt into the crowd after a match against Liverpool in which he scored a goal. She said: “Was that because you knew that the game was up?”

Mr Johnson asked: “The Liverpool game?”

Ms Blackwell replied: “The game you have been playing with these courts?”

The prosecutor told the court Johnson admitted guilt in court on February 10.

She said to him: “Something you had known from the start but were there 60,000 very good reasons each week to persuade you?”

After a misunderstanding by Johnson, she clarified: “£60,000 a week. Was that what was preying on your mind?”

The football replied: “No.”

She asked Johnson what he would think of someone who avoided doing the right thing because it would lose them money.

He said: “It wouldn’t be good.”

The prosecutor said Johnson knew he would have to sign the sex offender’s register once he had pleaded guilty, which could bring an end to his career.

She suggested the footballer might have delayed admitting his guilt in the hope that the girl would lose her “courage and composure to give evidence” and lead to the case “crumbling away”, which he denied.

Ms Blackwell said the girl, who has been described as a “massive, massive Sunderland fan”, received abuse at the club following Johnson’s arrest.

She said: “And each week that you played for the football club and refused to acknowledge your guilt was another week perpetuating the excruciating pain for the girl, wasn’t it?

“She endured a year of being called a liar and a slag while you encouraged your fans to cheer you on.”